[UA] Greetings

[James O'Rance]

Epoch <msulliva at wso.williams.edu> said:

 >>>Quantity doesn't really impress me much.  If there were 30 clones of the 
Crocodile Hunter on the air in the U.S., and I watched all of them, would I 
have a good handle on Australian culture?<<<

Of course not. But not every American TV show that we see is "Friends" 
(although I'd rather have Friends than Survivor 2, which I've mercifully 
missed). We get Buffy too.  ;)

 >>>Do you know who the governor of California is?  Our Senators?<<<

There are certainly governors and Senators named on the news from time to 
time, especially if you have a pay TV service. Anyway.

I said:
 > What are the racial issues in our society?

You rebuffed:

 >>>Do you really understand the ones in the U.S.?<<<

Certainly not. I'm very aware that there are social issues that go back 
hundreds of years, and that things like the death penalty are racist for 
reasons that I have only been informed of in a basic manner.
But I am presented with this basic level of information frequently, whether 
it be through the news, through print reporting, through films like Higher 
Learning (which I mostly like and remember for its music), and through 
references in some roleplaying games (not many; they seem strangely anglo to 
me).

On the other hand, the kind of experiences I've had with growing up in 
Sydney are not reflected in very many forms of media at all, and so I would 
be surprised and flattered if you'd managed to be informed of them.

If my experiences with Australian multiculturality are represented in the 
media far less than American racial issues are, then I find it hard to 
understand how Americans would be able to learn about them.

If I'm wrong, I'll be pleased.  :)

 >>>My experience is that non-U.S. residents tend to have a view of the U.S. 
that could only be described as a caricature.<<<

This is undoubtedly true. You are the Great Satan, after all. ;)

(that's intended as a joke)

 >>>And there was some guy from a country which has tried to essentially 
excise X rated material from its chunk of the internet which called the U.S. 
"Land of the Puritans and Religious Right."<<<

Touche. Porn isn't really a religious issue here, as I understand it - it's 
a political issue driven by some conservative elements of the government. 
Australia had a conservative backlash in recent years, but we're a notably 
secular nation.

 >>>I'm sure there would be as well, though I'd argue that the fear of the 
different and unknown is as close to a human absolute as anything comes, and 
so that fear of the Tiger will be pretty much unchanged in most places that 
have embraced scientific worldviews.<<<

There may be cultures where elements of the OU may be fairly acceptable in 
the popular tradition (I'm not in one of them). The way that one of my 
friends talks about Scottish relatives, you'd think they were all 
Plutomancers.

I'm thinking that the fairly permissive and tolerant attitudes that 
urbanised Australians have towards sexuality might be extended to *some* 
occult behaviour. Maybe it's because I'm listening to the B52s while reading 
my email (again):

"Wanna be the daughter of Dracula? Wanna be the son of Frankenstein? Let's 
meet, and have a baby now."

Come to think of it, dipsomancers could fit in quite easily. Do you think 
that dipsomancer cabals ever go on pub crawls before going to duke it out 
with rivals?

However, my parents have both worked in mental health, and I'm fairly 
certain that anybody known for the behaviour that entropomancers and 
epideromancers get up to would spend a week or two in hospital.

In general, I have no problem at all with rpgs being set in the USA; that's 
where the market is, and its a great setting for action, conspiracy, and a 
multitude of other game types. Naturally, I still wonder about my own 
country...

It's possibly more interesting to think about UA and the OU in the 
distinctive and violent underworlds of England. Throw an adept or two into 
"Snatch", for instance, and think of the merry fun!


Cheers,

James O’Rance
“Divine being creates petting zoo. It gets out of hand.”
- The Bible (summarised by John W. Mangrum)

http://www.geocities.com/dragon-dreamer/



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